Why It Matters
No matter where you are in your life, it can always be better. Being in great shape is a big idea and one that should not be overlooked. Whether you are already in a female led relationship or working on getting one going adding healthy living can certainly help you and your partner create more happiness. Nothing beats feeling good and being healthy feels good! Healthy living is a great way to supercharge your life. Let’s look at some big ideas.
In the book, Nature’s Secret Nutrient, the authors go to great length to not only list out the ten top healthy living tips, they also put them in the proper order. I suggest picking up the book if you are seriously interested in 10 ways to increase your health with practical tips and suggestions. It is both an information book and an action planner.
Look At Your Habits
Nothing runs more on autopilot than your habits. You have all types of habits such as how you dress, how you speak, how you sleep, even how you surf the internet. One of the greatest ways to break into healthy living is to create habits around it. We all know we need to eat better and exercise regularly. Are you doing them constantly? Do you do them with little will power or is it a challenge to get it going?
Don’t get to upset about this, either way it is okay. Creating a new habit is a matter of substitution. You substitute on one habit for a better one. It may seem challenging at first, it is important to stick with it. Many studies suggest it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit. An Oxford University study states it takes around 66 days to form a new habit. In a little as 21 days and under 3 months is the timeframe for creating a new and better you.
Where To Start?
You can create a new habit in any area of your life. The trick sometimes is to find that one habit called a keystone habit. That is a term from the author, Charles Duhigg, in his great book, The Power of Habit. Basically, a keystone habit is that one habit that opens the door for other habits. It’s better understood with an example. Let’s say you exercise today. What will your day be like? When I exercise, I typically eat better that day, sleep better at night, and feel more energized and happy through out the day. By exercising, I keep a better sleep schedule, eat better, and feel better. It is a keystone habit for me.
Another keystone habit for me is meditation. When I meditate I start my day in a better mood and have more focus. My work is generally more productive, and I tend to do other things that support my goals. I am much more relaxed and can be a better spouse to my wife and father to my children.
Find an activity that provides a significant benefit. If it is exercise, great, how can you make it happen in your day? You see when starting out, we need to create the space in our lives for these things to happen. Have you chosen the activity you want to make a habit? Great, let’s continue.
The Habit Creating Process
While this may seem a little technical, follow me on this. If you want to create a habit, you will want to get an understanding of the followings steps:
- Must have a trigger ( a trigger activates automatic action)
- Must have a reward (that is tracked)
For the habit to stick it must be:
- Done frequently (so many days a week)
- Impossible to ignore (a trigger)
- Tracked
As positive habits are established, unwanted habits gradually lose their power.
5 Step Process To Create A New Habit
- Identify the desired new habit
- State the benefits of having the desire
- Create a trigger
- Create a reward
- Track the reward. This is the validation that the new positive habit is happening.
New positive habits will certainly add to your success. New habits represent a commitment to your greatness. If you replace a bad habit with a positive one, it gets easier over time to keep adding new positive habits.
Creating New Habits In Your FLR
Adding habits that support a FLR can be fun. One common suggestion is to find ways to pamper the female and do them within a certain frequency. In my house, foot massages are given so frequently that it feels odd if I am not doing one at least once a week. It can be anything from massages, pampering, cooking dinner, helping around the house, to scheduling meetings.
Find some activities or things that support the FLR and start doing them. Start with one or two and make it a priority when starting out. A key is to find something that the female will certainly appreciate. That will fuel the desire for both to keep it going whether by the woman asking or the man initiating.
A successful FLR will no doubt be a change for a lot of couple when starting out. Creating habits that support you and your relationship can be a real game changer and a way to stabilize the FLR. When a woman sees that her man enjoys pampering her or helping out with things, it will naturally make it easier for her to direct him towards continuing those things.
The benefit of a habit is that it becomes automatic. It does not take massive amount of will power to do the activity like exercising or giving a massage. You become naturally inclined to just do it.
Aristotle said frequency and repetition form a natural tendency. By creating habits around the activities you want in your FLR, your actions create a natural tendency. By adding healthy habits you are showing your partner you are committed to the FLR and are doing your part to be the best you are able to be.